so thankful...

Family,

Where do I even start to tell of the amazing-ness that was this last week? I will do my best to put into words just how incredible it was.

let me start by saying, I love with all my heart being a missionary. As Sora Ewell would say, "Who signed me up for this?". Who signed me up to experience more growth and more light than I could possibly imagine? I am so inexpressibly grateful and humbled. I am not worthy of the blessings of this mission.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend Zone Conference (twice) and Zone Leader Council with all the leaders of this mission including Elder Kerr, of the seventy, and his beautiful, sweet wife. I am not going to lie, it was a hard week. Beautiful and so rewarding, but also very hard. My eyes were opened to things that need to be corrected, both within myself and within this mission. Although there was no time to do our presentation at Zone Leader Council, I was able to address my concerns for our mission and I'm so grateful I did. It was definitely something that needed to be addressed and is now something I am working with Sora Hill to help improve in our mission. We will see what comes from it. I am excited for the changes that will soon come to our mission as we implement all we discussed at Zone Leader Council.

Elder Kerr spoke to the Zone Leaders about goals - my most favorite of subjects of which I have a burning testimony. He opened up a whole new way of looking at goals -which is why it was discussed for 3 hours at Zone Leader Council. However, that 3 hours felt like 30 minutes. I was a little ball of energy throughout the entire meeting. I loved every second. What he taught us is a process of goal setting that will take a little while to fully implement in the entire mission. But it will come and when it does, it will be oh-so powerful. Basically, one of the biggest takeaways was that goals are so much more apart of God's plan than we could ever possibly grasp. That being said, I intend to spend the rest of my life attempting to grasp it and applying goals in my life. My testimony of goals was already very strong, but now, words cannot describe the testimony I have and the excitement I feel about goals.

My scripture for the week? One we all know and could probably recite, but probably have the hardest time actually applying. John 13:34-35.

"...Love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

It is if we love one another that we are his disciples. It's hard for me when i see people who are called to be representatives of the Lord not putting this scripture into practice, especially towards those of whom they have been called to serve alongside.

This mission will have sister leaders soon. Elder Kerr predicts that this mission will be 50% sisters in the next year. Heavenly Father is helping me figure out how we can have sister-leaders in our mission and what that would look like. In the MTC, we had coordinating sisters, which after mentioning to Sora Hill, she thinks would be a wonderful idea. We're drawing out an action plan together. Stay tuned.

Can I just tell you how much more respect I have for the Zone Leaders of our mission?? They are absolutely incredible. I came away from Zone Leader Council with so much respect and love for them. I'm so grateful for their dedicated service and for their examples of obedience. They are great.

Last week, being in a large city that neither Sora Smith nor I knew, we had the opportunity of spending an excessive amount of time with the Assistants to the President, Elder Newey and Elder Harrison. Just a little side note on Elder Newey, he is probably the most Christ-like of people. I've never met someone who reminds me so much of Jared. As you can imagine, I just love being around him for that reason. Anyway, as I was helping Elder Newey clean (he is always serving) I asked him at what points in his mission has he found that he is the happiest. He answered beautifully and asked me the same question. I responded that I just love watching things grow and witnessing how people exercise their faith in the gospel. I realized in that moment and even more so over the next few days just how much our branch here in Arad has grown and for that reason why they make my heart so happy. In my first transfer, we were sitting in Branch Council and it was a disaster. There was no unity within the branch, despite the leaders never ending efforts, there just was not a foundation of unity. I knew that it would be incredibly difficult to bring people into this branch when the foundation was so shaky. As I sat in our Thanksgiving activity on Saturday night, watching our branch sing, dance and laugh together, that question I asked Elder Newey flowed through my mind. This is when I am the happiest. Witnessing growth. (maybe this is why I love children so much, who knows...) It was in that moment on Saturday night, as I watched the faithful members of our branch befriend one another, that I realized this is what Heavenly Father has been working on in this branch. Now that there is a foundation of faith and love within the Arad branch, I know that the Lord will bless this branch with more members in the near future. It was such a neat realization and I'm so grateful I have been able to witness the growth of this branch and it's beautiful members.

Unfortunately, Mona could not meet last Monday night, but we are hoping to meet with her tonight. I have a really good feeling about her.

We are also working with the boyfriend of one of our members. He is older (early 50's) and is just loving the gospel. His name is Stefan and he comes to church even when Sora Chira (his girlfriend) doesn't. He comes to institute and all the activities. We plan to meet with him tomorrow and Wednesday. He is very open and is progressing. I love meeting with him. He has the most pure eyes. That sentence doesn't really make sense, but just looking into his eyes, you can see his pure soul. I don't know how else to describe it.

We have so many potentials that we are hoping to meet with this week. If our week goes the way we have planned, we could have a really successful week. Please please pray that our potentials will turn into investigators.

Natali still has not returned and it looks like she won't for a while. She will most likely need to be re-baptized when she returns. This is the most bizarre of situations and I'm really not sure what to do seeing that we don't really have communication with her. Maybe you could call Kenton's family and see what her plans are?? Please keep her in your prayers.

Overall, it was a wonderful week. I am amazed at the way the Lord works. And on top of all of this amazing-ness, I got to see Sora Ewell and Sora Modzelewska. Being around the two of them makes me feel closer to my Savior and is a little piece of heaven for me. It's the closest thing I've felt to being around family since leaving on my mission. I felt a hole in my heart as soon as they left. I miss them both dearly already. They are angels. Sora Ewell also sang at her Zone Conference, which I got to be at of because of our adventure of going a day early, and she sang beautifully. I love feeling her spirit as she sings and the light that shines from her as she bares her testimony through song. She is beautiful in every sense of the word.

It was so fun to see the pictures of ALL my beautiful nieces and nephews. So neat. Yes, I cried as I looked at each of their faces, wanting to kiss their little cheeks and give my love to them through biggest hug they could imagine. I love my nieces and nephews. All 16 of them.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and felt my love for you. I prayed that you would.

atat de recunocatoare,
Sora Cook

I'm not in this picture, but this is some of the wonderful members in our branch. Don't you just love their unity?? Please note that 3 of these wonderful members were less active 5 months ago. Brings tears to my eyes. (the one with the thumbs up is the one we have to thank for this new-found branch unity. He is incredible and his name is Edi. He is our ward mission leader.)

Sora Ewell, don't kill me, but I attached the recording of you singing. It was too beautiful not to. Love you :) Ps, why did we not get any pictures together? We must be better at that. Next time.

Mother, in case your worried, I am no longer sick and 100% better. :)

Merry Thanksgiving

Ceau Family,

Well, this week, a lot of time was spent in my bed, unfortunately. I've been sick all week and sadly couldn't do as much as we would have liked. Poor Sora Smith has been so patient with me. Bless her heart.

Unfortunately, that means I don't have much to report on din cauza (the negative form of "because") my health... or lack thereof. Being sick is quite a frustrating thing... especially when the last thing I would like to do is "rest". The times last week when I decided not to rest and to just put aside my health and go to our lessons, all our lessons fell through... every time. So there we were... lesson-less and me not feeling the greatest (and without a voice -not sure how I thought I would give a lesson with no voice, didn't think that one through.) But I was determined to do missionary work despite my health. I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me know how i cand do missionary work that day and I felt I needed to ask for a blessing.

*Just a little sidenote of my gratitude for the priesthood and it's powers. I'm so grateful I grew up in a home where the priesthood resides. Now that I don't have the opportunity to be surrounded by the peace that comes from being around one who holds the authority of God on a consistant basis, like I did growing up, it makes me that much more grateful for any opportunity I have to be around the holders of the priesthood.*

Anyway, we had a lesson scheduled at the church, so the Elders came to the church to give me a blessing. I'm so grateful they were so willing to put aside what they were doing and come give me a blessing. I felt a lot of peace and Heavenly Father telling me to take care of my body and go rest so that I could recover quickly and sooner get back to dedicating all my time to missionary work.

And that day my prayers were answered and Heavenly Father gave me an opportunity to share the gospel with a sweet lady on the tramvai on the way home from the church. She was sincery intrigued and was excited to receive a copy of the Book of Mormon. We have a lesson set up with her tonight. Her name is Mona. Beautiful, no?

So, I took the advice I received during my blessing and I rested to get myself feeling better and I'm happy to say that I am feeling a lot better. Which makes me happy for more reasons than one.. I told Sora Hill if I wasn't better by Monday I would go to a doctor. I was praying and praying I would be better for that reason... but mostly so I can get back at doing missionary work again. :)

This week is Zone conference and this time it is in Bucaresti. Every six months a general authority comes and we do a multi-zone conference. Elder Stephen C. Kerr from the seventy will be coming to speak to us and I am so excited. I love any opportunity to learn, grow and improve myself and the way I do missionary work. I especially love learning from other missionaries and my leaders. It's always a little exhilerating and refreshing to be surrounded by so many others who are involved in the same work as you. I draw strength from being around them and whether it's intentional or unintentional, they teach me how I can better myself and improve. They teach me from their strengths and from their weaknesses; from their obedience and maybe their lack thereof. I guess this is something that happens every day with the people Heavenly Father surrounds us by. Every situation, every person you meet in as opportunity to grow and learn if you allow it to be. Asking ourselves "What can I learn from this situation or person?" can bring greater understanding and allow us to grow and learn even more about ourselves and who our Heavenly Father wants us to become. And then, after learning more about ourselves, it is an opportunity to apply what we learned and be an example to those around us. How exciting. So, in short, I'm excited for Zone Conference.. even if it is taking 4 days out of our schedule.

Yep, 4 days. Zone Conference is only one day but Sora Smith is taking part in a musical number (playing piano) so we are going a day in advance to allow her to practice with the sister who will be singing, then thursday is Zone Conference and the day after Zone Conference is Zone Leader Council with all the Zone Leaders and Sora Smith and I have been invited to present. President Hill has asked us to present on the importance of using members in missionary work. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. This is a subject I have just recently become pretty passionate about and I hope to properly express what Heavenly Father would have us express to the leaders of the mission in order to help the missionaries understand the importance of using members in our missionary work. All that plus 24 hours of travel in total takes out about 4 days of preselyting time in Arad. I'm trying to be okay with that.

Thanksgiving. It should be a universal holiday, yes? Why wouldn't giving thanks be something the whole world celebrates? Unfortunately, it's not. But that doesn't mean we can't have a branch activity celebrating Thanksgiving. :) On Saturday, we will be having a Thanksgiving Dinner/talent night giving thanks for al of the wonderful talents God has given us. I think it's an adorable idea, if I do say so myself. All the members have signed up to show off their many different and wonderful talents. Should be great.

And on top of that, today we got voie (permission) to do a zone preperation day and do a turkey bowl with all the missionaries in the zone. Sadly, I didn't play much. Flag football was not worth getting more sick and being out another week. No thanks. So.. I took lots of pictures. It was fun.

Natali still hasn't returned. She extended her trip and is staying there for Thanksgiving. I have mixed feelings about this. I am so glad she is having a good time, but it is so important that she comes back and receives the Holy Ghost and is confirmed a member of the church. Preach my Gospel teaches us that baptism of water without the baptism of fire is useless. I'm excited for her to return, whenever that will be.

Well, life is great. It is oh-so-great. It's hard, but that is what makes it great. The fact that we have the ability to stand tall during times of hardship is what makes life great. How beautiful is that? Satan will attempt to bring us down in every way possible, but by holding on to who we are and remembering to turn to our Father in Heaven during thos times is the greatest blessing of all. We just get to remember the greatness inside each of us - don't let Satan take away that rememberance - and remembering that everything has a purpose. Even though we may not see that purpose right away, the key is to just be patient. Eventually, we will see how everything falls into place perfectly. It always does. It works out just as it is supposed to. And I love that.

Heavenly Father is aware of us and desires to bless us. I've come to learn that my Father in Heaven is so intricately aware of me and my desires and my needs. He blesses me far beyond what I deserve. The least I could do is give Him my time serving Him. The wonderful thing about that is I dont ahve to be done giving my time to Him after these short 18 months are over. I can give Him a lifetime of service. Missionary or not. However, I'm grateful for the time I have not to give my full attention to that service. That is, of course, as soon as I am no longer bed-ridden. :)

I love you all family. Every single one of you. Your emails mean the world to me. I am terribly sorry that my lack of time does not allow me to respond individually like I would want to... but I hope you know how special your words are to me and how much I love hearing from you. As I read your emails I feel a sweet, peaceful feeling much like I feel when I am in your presense. It makes my heart happy.

You are all in my prayers by name and I trust Heavenly Father is blessing you in abundance!

1-4-3,
Sora Cook

ps, skyping will be happening on Christmas. Plan on it:)


*Sora Petrisor, I'm not sure if you read these emails, but if you do, I want you thank you for the love you have given me for the Romanian people. I see your face in so many of the people here and my love for them grows instantly. I am so honored to be here among "your people". Thank you for all you have taught me and continue to teach me through the memory of your example and love. Te iubesc :)

So grateful for weeks like this....

Family,

What an awesome experience it was to see those pictures of Natali's baptism and see you standing next to her. I teared up looking at them and it makes me tear up thinking about it. I'm grateful you got to go and be apart of that experience. What a tender mercy. She is a beautiful person with a beautiful soul. I'm excited for her to come back  so she can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is just as important as baptism, and I'm so excited for us to continue to teach her.

Another great week full of learning from tough situations and relying on my Heavenly Father for strength. Our search to teach a family is still underway. We contacted quite a lot this week in a lot of different ways. One day, we did block knocking (going into blocks -aka big cement apartment buildings- and knocking on every door. We knocked 172 doors that day.) The next day, contacting everyone on the streets. One day, contacting people in the park. It was difficult coming away from last week only having had a few lessons from all those days of contacting and talking to literally thousands of people. I'm so grateful for the strength that Heavenly Father gave me to talk to each person and invite them to come unto Christ despite the rejection and disappointment and I'm grateful for the few lessons we did have.

We have met with a family who was a referral from a member in our branch. The family is Catholic, born catholic and determined to die Catholic. However, they are willing to 'stam de vorba' (sit and talk) about the gospel and about what we believe, but they have declared that they refuse to change religions. We've told them we are not there to convince them or to change their religion, just to share what we believe. We are hoping that in doing so, that we won't change their religion or their beliefs, but that the spirit will soften their hearts and bear witness of the truth of the restored gospel. Please pray for this family. They have 3 daughters, 15, 12 and 1. They are all beautiful and, just like everyone else, need the comfort of the gospel in their lives.

Catarina, unfortunately, informed us this week she is moving to Austria. Breaks my heart, but I'm grateful we have missionaries in Austria that I'm hoping will find her or that she will search out. You can pray for her too.

We've all read Luke chapter 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, but this week, as I studied this story, I read it a little differently than I have in the past. I found the differences and similarities in the stories.

Differences:
The sheep naively wandered off the path.
The coin was lost out of negligence.
And the son willingly rebelled and strayed.

This is the same with many of our less actives. Some have naively wandered off the path, others have been lost out of negligence on the ward member's part, and others have willingly rebelled.

The sheep and the coin were sought after.
The son "came to himself" and returned on his own free will. *note that the father didn't go hunting for him or try forcing him to come back. He patiently waited for him to "come to himself" and return home.

We must seek after those who have either naively wandered or been lost out of negligence and wait with patience for those who knowingly rebelled to "come to [themselves]." Of course we can encourage them to make the right choices and to return -we should always do this- but the important thing is that we show patience and love toward them recognizing they have their own free agency and how they choose to use it shouldn't influence our love for them.

Similarities:
They were all welcomed back and rejoiced after.

I love these stories and all the lessons within them. Less active work is so important. I'm so grateful we have willing branch members here in Arad to help us with our less active rescuing.

Christmas celebrations have already started here. They have shops up all around centru (downtown) and it's adorable. I'm so excited to experience Christmas here and all their traditions.

Family, I love you all very much. I hope all is well on the home front. Looks like you got a lot of snow. Can't say I'm jealous... I love snow, but it's too early for snow. Maybe in December I'll be okay with it.

Sending you all my love and praying you can feel it,
Sora Cook
 

Beautiful Natali with Sora Cook's and Sora Smith's parents at Natali's baptism in SLC.

Kenton, Natali and Kenton's father

ps... we went to a 'pyramid scheme' presentation this week (for an investigator, we didn't know it was a pyramid scheme trap) and the lady didn't speak english very well... actually, not at all. She kept trying to say "If you're not fast, you're dead." but instead she was saying "If you're not fat, you're dead." It was cute. And really funny.

All my love!

Family,

Thank you all so much for your emails and pictures. I've never longed to be home until I saw those pictures of baby Porter... What a precious little man he is. Tell him all about how his Matusa Aly loves him and cannot wait to hold him. (Matusa is 'aunt' in Romanian. Pronounced 'muh-too-shuh'). He's beautiful. Congratulations James and Jerrica. What a lucky baby boy to be born to such amazing parents.

This week was full of meetings, contacting and activities. It was another great week. We had Zone Training Meeting on tuesday and the Zone Leaders went over all that was discussed at Zone Leader Counsel. It was great to hear from them the direction in which President Hill wants to take the mission. They talked a lot about visiting less actives and, funny enough, comfort zones. I love how Heavenly Father teaches me. When I learn or study a new principle, it shows up in every meeting or lesson for the next few weeks. It's wonderful.

Something that President Hill has asked when we visit less active members is to always take a member with us. If we can't take a member with us, don't bother visiting them; spend your time finding people to teach. The more I think and pray about this council, the more I completely agree and realize how important it is that we take a member with us. Members play such an important role in missionary work. Something I didn't realize until coming on my mission and it is something I vow to be better at when I come home.

Last transfer I started reading the New Testament. (I love the New Testament. I've finished Matthew through Acts and am now reading the epistles in the order they were written. They're so beautiful.) I was reading in 2 Corinthians 4:13 and realized how important it is to share what we believe.

13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I ^abelieved, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore ^bspeak;

Often times, as we're visiting with members, they tell us how lucky we are to have been born into the gospel and to have been raised in the truth. After hearing this several times, I began to feel guilty about this incredible blessing that God has given me and began to ask myself who am I that I would be blessed with the knowledge of the truth and not so many others who need to gospel? I never found an answer to my questions, I know that we all are given exactly what we need and Heavenly Father has blessed us all in different ways, but these questions have given me a reason to work harder and a desire to share with as many people as I can in these short eighteen months. To talk to everyone placed in my path. I have been blessed greatly, therefore much is expected of me.

I've been studying chapter 13 a lot this week in Preach My Gospel. Will you all do me a favor and go read chapter 13 in Preach my Gospel? Even if you've read it before... please, go read it. We, as members of the church have such a responsibility to share what we believe. "We also believe, and therefore speak." Go to the missionaries, and give them a referral of someone who needs this gospel. Ask how you can help them. Go on visits with them. Do whatever you can to share what you know. Go bless some lives with this gospel. I know you are all way ahead of me and already doing your part. I'm so grateful for your examples.

We had a Halloween activity on Saturday.. It was a few days after Halloween but they don't celebrate Halloween here in Romania so it didn't really matter to them when the party was. It was put together last minute but it turned out pretty well. We carved pumpkins, had fake mustaches, bobbed for apples, and ate doughnuts hanging from a string. ( or cookies pretending to be doughnuts since doughnuts don't really exist here. Sad, I know.) We had like 8 members show up!! Success. (That's really good for activities. The last few activites only one person showed up...) We're working on our branch activities and trying to help them understand that an activity is supposed to be FUN and should start with a prayer and maybe have a spiritual thought, but they don't quite understand that the point of activities is to build relationships with those in the branch. We're working on it. Any fun ideas for activities would be appreciated!!

Catarina is doing well. She has been sick, but said we could come back and continue to teach her as soon as she's better. Please pray for a speedy recovery for her.

We have made it our goal this tranfer to find and teach a family. We are contacting every family we see at the hopes of meeting with them and teaching them the gospel. Please pray for us.

Hope. It's a beautiful word, no? I've been studying hope this week. It is something that has slowly faded from me, without me even realizing it. I'm so glad I followed the prompting to study this topic and for the peace it has brought me. Last transfer, we experienced a lot of heartache due to high hopes not being met by people we love so dearly and want to see being blessed by the gospel... So, without even realizing it -as if it iwas my heart's defense mechanism to the pain I felt- I lost a lot of my hope out of fear of being let down. This week, as I studied hope, I realized how my subconscious lack of hope has affected our work. Behind each contact, each lessing, each commitment was a lot of doubt. That doesn't seem like a good way to teach a gosepl of faith, love and hope.

In preach my gospel, it says that hope manifests itself in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm and patient perserverance. When I read the words "patient perserverance", my heart sank as I realized that I had allowed myself to lose some of that hope that I came into the country with. I had allowed myself to lose some of my hope in the work of God. I'm so grateful for the renewed sense of hope I now feel. There is no room for doubt and discouragement. The salvation of the souls of Romania are depending on my hope and patient perserverence.

Hebrews 6: 10-12 Go read it.
1 Thessalonians 1:3--  "Remembering without ceasing your work of ^afaith, and ^blabour of love, and ^cpatience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;"

Whether or not we have hope is completely up to us. We must daily and consistantly choose to have hope. There are too many things telling us not to in this crazy world we live in. "Trouble has no necessary connection with disappointment." -Elder Holland

Today, I choose to have hope in the work of God and in my Savior and his Atonement. :)

I love you all family. Thank you for your prayers. I feel them and I'm so grateful for them. Please know how much I love you. Please give my love to the Mears family. They are in my prayers. Times like this make you stop and realize how precious every second is. So grateful for the eternal spectrum of life.

Please know how incredible you are.

Va iubesc pe voi.

cu drag,
Sora Cook


Read this talk, I promise, it's a good one. Or better yet, listen to it.
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/10/prophets-in-the-land-again?lang=eng&query=*+%28name%3a%22Jeffrey+R.+Holland%22%29




Our district in centru (downtown) contacting. The building behind us is the Primarie (city hall). It's beautiful. (ps, meet Elder Benson, he's wonderful, and so fashionable. He helped me pick out my coat. I quite like his love for shopping!)

 

Holloween party. Elder Tayler won.